Two doctrines found in the
Controversies were especially controversial. In expounding the first
controversy Pighius posited a novel theory of original sin according to
which the only effects of the fall of Adam were the introduction of death and
the imputation of the guilt of Adam's sin to all humanity. There was no talk of
the corruption of human nature as a result of the fall. The lust that human
beings experience derives from nature as created and was experienced by Adam
before the fall. This issue resurfaces in the debate with Calvin over free
choice, where Calvin points out that Pighius is heretical by the criteria of
Roman Catholic orthodoxy. The same conclusion was reached by the delegates at
the Council of Trent, and Pighius's material on the first controversy was
placed on the Index of Prohibited Books (Lisbon, 1624). (A. N. S. Lane, “Introduction,”
in John Calvin, The Bondage and Liberation of the Will: A Defence of the
Orthodox Doctrine of Human Choice Against Pighius [trans. G. I. Davies;
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1996], xvii, emphasis in bold added)
